Brussels, 20/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 20 November the European Commission decided that from next year, administrations in 11 candidate countries will be able to exchange data with EU Member States' administrations as regards application of EU law, enforcement of Internal Market rules, and supply of e-Government services across borders to citizens and enterprises. The system that allows Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) was first extended to Slovenia and Poland (see IP/02/902), and will be open to Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia on 1 January 2003. Stepping up data exchange will accelerate the candidates' take-up of EU legislation before they formally join the Union.
IDA participation rules are laid down in memoranda of understanding soon to be signed with these countries. A memorandum of understanding for the participation to the IDA programme has already been signed with Slovenia and is about to be signed with Poland. All the other candidate countries will be on board as from January 2003, with the exception of Turkey and Malta (expected to follow in a matter of months). IDA's € 25 million work programme for 2003 currently under preparation, will take into account the needs of all candidate countries. The candidates are already involved, as observers, in a number of IDA working groups of national experts, responsible for areas such as network security and e-Government portals. Moreover, information events have been held in several candidate countries and other events are being organised to raise awareness of how the IDA Programme works.